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My 61 has back up lights. There are wires to the tail lamps for the back up lights. I supplied 12 v to the wires and the bulbs light up. Problem is, I don't know what activates the back up lights. They never worked since I have had the car so would like to get them working. I checked the electrical schematics in my shop manual and it doesn't even show wiring for back up lights. I assume there must be a switch somewhere...steering column? Couldn't find anything. Neutral safety switch...? Hoping someone can help save me a bunch of time trying to trace the wires from the backup lights to the front of the car. Thanks
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I don't know how different things are from 61 to 70, but in my car the back up lights were controlled by the neutral safety switch on the shifter. You may have to just trace the wires from the tail lights back to the front and see where they go. There can't be much else that takes a signal from the shifter to tell where it is pointing. It makes sense to me that it would be inside the passenger compartment rather than outside on the shift linkage, somewhere in the engine bay, or on the trans.
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Thanks...you are correct...neutral safety switch it is. I got my hands on a 64 wiring schematic. it shows one black-red wire off of the neutral safety switch goes to the back up lights and one goes to the fuse block. The wires on my 61 back up lights are also black-red. Mystery solved. I hate wiring...
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I was mentioning the backup lights not working on the 61. Turns out the the neutral safety switch was broken inside, so the switch wouldn't rotate with the shifter on the steering column(Cruise a Matic). Also, the contacts inside the switch were so corroded, I couldn't even get resistance thru the switch with an ohm meter. Lucikly, I was able to find a NOS on ebay today.
Just in case some of you were wondering, there are four brass wire connectors on the neutral safety switch. When looking at the unit, the connectors at the 12 and 1 o'clock position are for the back up lights. And the connectors at the 3 and 4 o'clock position are for the neutral safety for starting the vehicle.
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